This essay was originally published by me on this essay collection and my WordPress blog in 2019.
It has now received a new lease of life by getting published in the latest issue of CAFE DISSENSUS commemorating 100 years of legendary filmmaker SATYAJIT RAY.
So read it, spread the word and share your thoughts.
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SETTING OUT IN THE REAL WORLD ISN'T A CAKEWALK: ON SATYAJIT RAY'S TIMELESS MAHANAGAR (1963)
By Prithvijeet Sinha
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I watched Mahanagar (The Big City) on a whim nearly five years ago during the festal month of October, closely aligned with Durga Puja celebrations, an occasion sacred and inseparable from the Bengali ethos. Since Mahanagar was made by the great Bengali auteur Satyajit Ray, the particularity of that event was special to me as I too come from the same background. For those still not aware of the cultural thrust here, Bengali refers to anything related to the Eastern Indian state of Bengal, positioned as the true creative and intellectual hub of a diverse nation such as India. Bengali, however, does not limit itself to just one moniker as it extends its influence over the millions of Bengali-origin people settled across India and overseas. I emphasize this crucial fact because nobody looks at the subtle nuances of life quite like the way Bengalis do and armed with expressive eloquence, they succeed in recreating its essence without hitting the bush.
That cultural pivot established, Mahanagar (1963) is one of the most balanced portrayals of the real-life struggles in middle-class families, both at a particular and universal level. Let’s face it then that times may have changed, and the man-to-woman ratio of working individuals may have tripled. But in a whirling male-dominated economy, tilting the scales in favor of an equitable representation for females is still a challenging proposition for thousands. The social mindsets have a large role to play, especially when children occupy a marital set up and the woman is expected to be primarily a homemaker. That’s still the only pursuit that traditional models of societal functioning dictate and though we are in the ultramodern age, 2021 and all, some things have still not changed. If you want to see these pertinent issues through the most practical, non-partisan prism where individual viewpoints of all contribute to the larger discourse, then begin by watching this incisive tale of big city foibles and the everyday struggles of a couple (Madhabi Mukherjee and Anil Chatterjee) that steps in with the times and decides to contribute equally to the monetary well-being of a family consisting of their ageing elders (Haren Chatterjee and Shefalika Devi), a young child (Prosenjit Sarkar), and a teenage sister in her senior years of high school (Jaya Bhaduri Bachchan in her first screen credit).
Set in the 1960s, it is imperative to note that the cost of household items and lifestyle choices then were worlds apart from the skyrocketing shape the modern economy has taken in the present times. Mahanagar is timeless and peerless because it tells us that life and its attendant drills essentially remain the same irrespective of price tags. However, the spaces between exorbitant displays of wealth now stands in contrast to the marked, relative simplicity of the preceding thirty years and before. It was also taboo to even suggest that a woman could work in the sphere outside that of the home. Today, the right to make a mark in professional fields of one’s volition has been earned by the womenfolk with distances blurring with each passing day. Yet, the very real pinch of managing the needs of a family and ensuring that there is no compromise in their sustenance is something that is at the center of humanity’s quest for earning money and attempting to gain financial stability beyond the monthly income. A filmmaker and keen observer like Satyajit Ray invests this otherwise earnest core of concerns with charm, wit, interpersonal opinions, and a genuine sense of a breakthrough for its protagonists. The title of the film, to me, alludes to the agency of the people inhabiting these metropolitan spaces who dare to leave their comfort zones and take risks at the expense of personal adjustments.
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